I found the medicine that I purchased at the farmacia the other day in San Jose that I couldn’t find later. I really have no idea why I put them where I found them, it was definitely a stupid spot. The powder is similar but the pills are different (I guess they could be the same).

Although, if I had remembered, I’m sure be have been thinking it was an excellent spot.

This might not seem like a monumental post, but had I found it, that might have been enough to prevent me from my hospital visit a few days ago…

LATER: Actually, I’ve taken another look at the powder I found and it’s not the same. The one is electrolytes and the other is an anti-diarrhrettic. I’m not saying it wouldn’t have helped, just that I now know it’s different…

It’s raining out today, pretty hard actually, but I’ve got my covered porch and my high-speed internet so I’m okay from an entertainment standpoint. I’d much rather it be sunny but it’s rainy season and I knew that before I came here. It’s nice and cool out so I don’t need to even have the A/C on. Also, knowing there are a few places to go around here that I can actually park at helps me mentally with the rain.

So this rain is making me a little crazy today. It’s been pouring on and off all day. I’d use it as a day to stay inside and catch up on the internet but it’s satellite and the rain goofs up the signal. So needless to say I’m a little bored today.

It’s to be expected as it is the “green” season but I was just hoping for a little less. Talking with a few German women in my hotel they said this is only one of three really rainy days that they’ve had and they’ve been here six months.

Although, it’s coming down insane right now and I’m in this restaurant with no walls and it’s really nice with all the rain noise and seeing the rain pouring over the edges of the roof. It’s not bright enough in most of the restaurants to read while you wait but the laptop lights itself so while it’s geeky it’s practical. Although a zip-lock bag would be more practical than the vinyl backpack I brought it here in…

I did get a chance to use faster Internet in Cabano today but it was so warm inside I didn’t stay too long or else I could have hung out there longer. I did use the internet to make a few phone calls and Mom was on-line so I got to video conference with her; for some reason it’s way more exciting to video-conference from Costa Rica than from 30 miles away.

With the rain it was too cloudy to go catch the sunset in Manzanillo, maybe tomorrow (I’ll probably go there and eat even if it’s raining).

So we haven’t had a huge amount of sun this trip and that’s okay since that means it hasn’t been hot, but today has just been wet wet wet. I want a nice sunny day to take Mom on a boat tour on the Thames or up in the London Eye (huge ferris wheel). We’re off to Cardiff in Wales tomorrow so you know it’s going to be a sunny day in London!!

I never thought I’d get tired of looking out the window when flying in an airplane. I thought I’d just sit at the window and watch the whole time no matter how long the flight was.

It’s beautiful, but they don’t hold my attention for so long any more. I’m not sure why. Because they aren’t so mysterious any more? Because I know it’s just water vapor (or something like that?)? Because I’ve got other boring things on my mind.

I thought I’d always been all about the window seat, now I’m all about the aisle so I can get up and wander and stretch when I want.

Instead of watching, I’m just reading and writing and watching movies. I’m not sure why on some lever I’m considering that to be a bad thing?

But here I am typing away instead of watching..(As I look at what I just wrote, I think maybe I’ve written something similar in the past on a different trip. Maybe not, maybe I just thought about writing it. For obvious reasons I can’t look right now.)

So far I’ve only explored the southmost point of the Nicoya Peninsula and stayed in Montezuma. I want to explore more of the Pacific coast next trip (later this month).

I’m looking for tips on where to travel and places to stay. As requirements for places to stay go: walking to beach distance, hot showers and air conditioning (not fancy, cheap is better). There was a pullout section of the TicoTimes a few weeks ago but it only seemed like it covered the ultra fancy hotels and resorts.

I just want to wander around the towns and the ocean and find some waterfalls and stuff like that.

Any thoughts or suggestions on what not to miss? restaurants to eat at? or hotels to stay at?

So I hear it’s cold back in Michigan! I’m glad I’m getting my money’s worth from this vacation. I had to explain to a local it was freezing and he didn’t get I literally meant freezing until I clarified with “zero degrees Celsius”.

It’s definitely getting cooler on some of the evenings. I was actually chilly down on the beach last night.

I can’t believe it’s Saturday already.

I wandered down to the Ylang Ylang resort to use their internet, they have the best in the area. I”m in a hammock in the dark posting the old stuff and typing this short post. It’s not as comfy as it sounds.

It’s really humid this evening.

I think I’m staying in Montezuma (or at least this peninsula) for the rest of the trip.

I can’t even tell you how badly that I needed that! It was more like 6 hours and I was up for a few and then 6 hours more, it was wonderful…

I haven’t gotten anywhere near enough sleep lately (even when I’ve been sick). I’ve been shortchanged on sleep too much lately, way too many 5 hour nights; I’ve been pretty happy with the few 7 hours nights and those just aren’t enough to catch up. Work and life has been a little extra cRaZy and stressful lately and I’m sure this will help a little bit. I’m sure a few more days like this every week would really help…

This was the best concert!! It wasn’t just Brandi Carlile opening for Indigo Girls, a good part of it was Indigo Girls AND Brandi Carlile together!!! Not only that, it was like the concert that wouldn’t end! They just kept singing!

I went way early and upgraded my lawn seat to row H (the 7th row actually) since Ravinia lets you do that (which is great). I originally purchased a lawn seat because I just didn’t know if I actually was going to go. But due to some empty seats, I really spent most of the concert in rows 2 or 3!!!

At the beginning they did a song with Brandi and later she did one with them. Then Brandi did Michael Stipes part for Kid Fears and it actually gave me chills! Then she did who knows how many with them at the end (at least 4, maybe 6), some just backing but many performing with them. And they just kept playing, the fans kept cheering every time they played an additional song. They went way past when Ravinia says they normally stop playing (at least according to the brochure).

I will be posting more on this later: Brandi, IG and Ravinia will probably get some more entries…

So right now I’m on the S.S. Badger heading over to Wisconsin so that tomorrow I can go to Lincoln Park, IL to see that Brandi Carlile / Indigo Girls concert I mentioned a few weeks ago.

I’ve been bouncing around up north for the last few days and now I’m taking the ferry from Ludington to Manitowok. The ship is huge, they were unloading semi-trucks and busses in addition to all the cars. It was very impressive watching it come into the dock. Please note from this photo the the square shape on the left side of the cargo hold is a huge bus.

I got a good seat on the deck, I’m sure it’ll get cold later, but it’s awesome for now! It’s a little pricey to take but I’ve always wanted to do it and this seemed like a good time…

So I enjoyed The Holiday but some parts were really really slow. There were parts that really appealed to my sense of humor, but I’d have a hard time recommending it. It’s got Kate Winslet (and Cameron Diaz) and I’ve always had a thing for Kate…

It’s the story of two women who need to get away due to recent men problems and end up doing a home swap. Cameron leaves her huge home in LA to stay in Kate’s tiny place in the little town in England (and vice-versa); Kate really made out on this deal. Of course they meet men and the story goes on from there. One of the parts I really really liked is when Kate was exhausted from the trip and the jet lag and wants to sleep but it’s bright since it’s the middle of the day. Then she find the magical switch that activates the room blinds which slide down and seal the room up likes it’s a bomb shelter it was awesome; that’s how I like to sleep, when it’s pitch black so I could really handle having something like that.

What else? Cameron makes movie previews for a living and that was cool, especially her daydreams about her life as a movie preview. I liked Jack Black’s part, when he’s not too goofy I like him, and the he was pretty good (a little less goofy would have been better, IMHO). The little girls were hysterical(!) but I won’t say anything else about them. That’s it, I wish it had been more exciting but that’s all I got, like I said, I enjoyed it…FYI, I read in the IMDB that “This film was written specifically with actors Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black in mind”

So some different things got me thinking about Roswell: Quite often Grey’s Anatomy does since Katherine Heigl was one of the stars. So that started me thinking about the TV series Roswell and I started surfing around stumbled along THE video clip (to set this clip up, you need to know that Max and Liz didn’t know each other well but secretly had crushes, two men get in an argument in the Crashdown Cafe, a gun goes off, Liz falls to the ground and Max runs to her side) where it all started . It was a great series but it only made it three seasons, which is actually pretty good for sci-fi.
And then I remembered that the Roswell UFO Festival is this summer (as always) but this year is 60 years since the aliens crashed there. The biggest coverup since well, since anything else. This is the reason as to why they always dismiss UFO sightings as ‘weather balloons’ because that’s what they accused the Air Force guy of doing, of confusing a weather balloon with a spaceship…

I’m really thinking of going to the festival this summer, has ever anyone gone? Any tips? Anything from someone whose been there but not during a festival? Maybe a not-to-miss place (museum or restaurant)? Or an alien-theme hotel or maybe just a good but cheap hotel?

So here’s the Montezuma Waterfall that we climbed way up into the hills to get to. We swam and (I) jumped into the pool there and then we climbed way farther up into the hills to get way above the waterfall (and there were a few more pools up there too) and then I climbed down past them so that if you were where I was when I took this movie you’d seem me at the top of the falls.

I know I’m behind in getting stuff up, but I’m getting there. FYI, I rotated this movie, so if it doesn’t play, can you please let me know?!?

So I was watching a re-run of Grey’s Anatomy last night. It’s the one where the wife has the fork stuck in her neck; her and the husband were being adventurous since she has an aneurism and only has weeks/months to live. So they are traveling and doing all the things they’ve always said they’ll do some day.

This ties back in with the meme from a few weeks ago about what would you do this six months to live. This also ties in with the new show Three Moons Over Milford where the moon gets hit with an asteroid and everyone knows it’s only a shot amount of time before the pieces fall back to earth. Several of the people and episodes are all about living life to the fullest.

So back to my question: “Why wait?”

If there is all sorts of stuff I want to do, what am I waiting for? What are you waiting for? Now I know some of us have responsibilities so that has all sorts of implications. But many of us are single with no responsibilities. Why not quit the job and just travel to those places that I’ve thought about? Go volunteer. Go move somewhere interesting and get a job for a while? I could probably figure something out so I could do some reasonable consulting via the net regardless of where I might live.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. My best friend just keeps waiting for the day I call and say see ya, I’ve off to move to Costa Rica…

I’ve been so so so busy with the start of school this year (our students started the 23rd!) which is normally busy, but we put in 1,000 new computers this summer and a few new labs and all sorts of stuff. So I’ve got tomorrow off. It’ll be my first day off that I get to sleep in and not have to rush about in weeks (the day I was sick last week doesn’t count).

Sleep, shop, eat and catch up on reading some blogs (I’m way behind). Maybe some basic things like bills and stuff like that. Maybe a matinee? (I’m not sure what’s out that I want to see)

So while I don’t have the tickets I now have my flight arrangements. To put it mildly the first day of my trip is going to suck. I’ve got a direct flight from New York to Egypt (5800 miles) but I have to get to New York (JFK) from Detroit (just under 500 miles). Here’s the sucky part, to get to JFK from Detroit they are flying me via Atlanta, GA so I’m going 1350+ miles instead of 500 miles, plus it’s probably an extra half traveling to do all the connections. Now I’m not a travel expert (or a geography expert) but it just seems odd (see the picture) that there isn’t some better way to route me less than 750 miles out of the way. Next time I’m make that part of the reservations myself and pay the extra for two different airlines one way or something.

Part of the annoyance was when I called to see what they could do to help they said, “that’s because you’re flying on Sunday and they only have one flight from Detroit to JFK, if you went on some other day it wouldn’t be a problem”, well I’m not the one who scheduled the tour on a Sunday, they did, I picked the tour company, they picked the day not me! And it’s true there is only one direct flight from from Detroit to JFK to get me there in time for the Egypt flight, it’d be nice to have some other options. I’d have paid extra for another airline or if they told me it was going to stink I’d have made my own reservations or I’d pay extra to get a direct flight the day before and spend the night in NY…

I almost forgot I have to go back to work for a few days this week. It’ll be quiet, I know I’m the only in my department. Lots of sorting and cleaning. I have to do a big initial pickup because they want to shampoo the carpet. A quick look to see if I want to rearrange and everything up off the floor. I’m taking all the paperwork off my desk (and the hutch and the chairs and the tops of the bookcases) and a bunch of file folders. If it isn’t from the last week and doesn’t go in a folder, it’s going in the trash!!! It’s not this bad anymore, but you get the idea. It’s just that I’ve thrown so much out lately and it’s still a mess…

Well it’s been a nice long weekend (5 days). I got to ride on the train (did I tell you I love the train?) and visit the crew on the west side of the state again (Heather, Nan, Tina and more…) and we ate (lots) and played games (WordDrop/Euchre). We also went to a museum which had all sorts of cool stuff (and the signage actually explained stuff) and a planetarium visit. Got to play with Heather’s & my blogs. Saw many other friends and managed to relax a whole lot…

Well that’s a bit of a few sentences that doesn’t say much specific.
Hmmm…. “I had lots of quality time with friends, had lots of fun and relaxed a lot!” That pretty much says it all…